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hobbes1020
2010-08-17, 04:03 PM
I am a first time DM running a group that is currently level 8 and just completed a story arc. I have 5 players (Paladin, Monk, Rogue, Wizard, Cleric) and was hoping to find a large, epic adventure to run. We are currently playing a campaign based in the Moonsea region and I was considering using the City of the Spider Queen adventure once the group gets closer to level 9 or 10.

I have read conflicting reviews on the adventure and was wondering if anybody has played through it or DM'ed it and if it is a fun adventure? I was hoping to get some general advice on running it. Also, should I wait until my group is level 10 before sending them into it or would they be okay at level 9?

Or, is there a campaign that others would recommend in its place? I'd like to stick to a published campaign in the FR setting.

Navigator
2010-08-17, 09:10 PM
City of the Spider Queen was my first 3.5 experience. As such, it was extremely fun, and I carry a lot of fond memories from it. It took us about a year to finish the campaign and went through two different DMs.

The first DM probably ran everything straight out of the book with very little modification. The core party was basically Paladin, Fighter, Rogue, Cleric. We started around level 10 or 11, but with only three people.

The second DM modified most, if not all the encounters a several sessions before we got to the tower because the combats were starting to lack challenge. We ended with the DM awarding us our first epic level.

I would definitely do it again, and may even run it for another group sometime soon. The only non-mechanical advice I can give from my experience is to make sure the players have a grip on the story, because it's a very long module and can very easily turn into a mindless bloodfest.

As far as making things streamlined for the players, give them access to darkvision in some way, and make sure they can teleport to and from town to dump their loot. I was the only person in the group without darkvision, it was really lame to have to spend 12,000g on goggles of night. That and we went through the whole campaign without an arcane caster, so getting back to town was a huge ordeal, especially when you're traveling for days at a time in the Underdark.

Hope that helps! Happy gaming.

hobbes1020
2010-08-17, 11:43 PM
Thanks for the great info Nav. We will be playing this game in PbP. I know all of the players in real life and I am not worried about the game stalling but do you think the storyline will be too epic for a PbP format?

Navigator
2010-08-17, 11:51 PM
Sadly, I have no experience with PbP games. Though, I've run games in chat programs like OpenRPG using GameTable, and found that dialogue and story-telling is much easier and sinks in more with the players. From what I understand about PbP, it really depends on how active you all plan to be, but will naturally take longer than if you gathered at table once a week.

I guess my best suggestion is to highlight certain milestones of the campaign as time passes such as letters found, NPCs talked to, BBEGs killed, etc.

TechnOkami
2010-08-18, 01:57 AM
Which book has City of the Spider Queen?

CapnVan
2010-08-18, 02:32 AM
Which book has City of the Spider Queen?

Google's no longer a friend?

hobbes1020
2010-08-18, 09:00 AM
Which book has City of the Spider Queen?

City of the Spider Queen is the name of the book. It's paperback and about 160-ish pages.

Keld Denar
2010-08-18, 12:02 PM
Similar to a lot of published adventures, you'll probably want to trim down the minor and random encounters for a PbP game. Too much combat is really rough on one, especially minor combats that can be mopped up easily. Instead, focus on plot critical combats, maybe even tweaking them to make them more challenging, although not dramatically more deadly. When I played a Expedition to Castle Ravenloft game, our DM handwaved a few encounters as "traveling back from area X to area Y, you came across 3 zombies which you dispatched with little effort". Running the combat with 3 CR1 zombies for a 6th level party in a PbP would have taken 4-5 days to sort out everyone's actions, so it just wasn't worth it to do.